Shimitana

Week 1 Update Readers Digest Version: Despite the slow start, I managed to finish the week off on a relatively strong note. Only did 3/5 handstands, but got 5/5 on flexibility, 3/3 on jump higher, and 5/3 on taking my puppy for a walk. I've found I have a lot of excuses for not doing the things I need to, so I'm working on coming up with a plan to eliminate those excuses. The Detailed Report: Handstand practice: 3/5. Didn't quite do so good on this one. I'm still having a hard time finding a place to do this. I live in a pretty small house that is full of a lot of things (yay college living), and as a super paranoid person I need to have 3-4 feet worth of open space all around me or I'm too terrified that I'm going to fall on things to attempt it. I used my bed to help me get comfortable with just being upside down for the first two days, and I rearranged the dining room to give me some wall space one day. I think I'm just going to permanently rearrange the dining room since we hardly ever use it in the first place that way I can't use not having wall space as an excuse to not practice. Overall: Meh. I had a lot of excuses, so I saw essentially no improvement on this goal. Flexibility: 5/5 I started the 30 day yoga challenge and did the first 3 yoga videos (the first one with SkateTroe). I also stretched for a little bit after 2 of my walks with Johnny. Overall: Doing pretty good. I don't know if I can say that I've seen an increase in my range of motion (because I haven't really been tracking that), but it has certainly decreased my muscle soreness after track practice. Jump Higher: 3/3 I've been doing an hour of voluntary weights in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday with some of the other track girls, and I did a mini workout wednesday night. Overall: Doing pretty good. I've seen a remarkable improvement in my strength even in one short week period. I need to do better about creating my own workouts, because once weights in the morning becomes required for practice I don't get to count those for my goal. Life Quest: 5/3 I've rocked the life quest this week. With the exception of Monday and Tuesday, I've taken the dog on a short walk every day this week. I even started working on trying to teach him fetch... It's not going well. There are too many interesting smells in the backyard for him to be bothered to bring the ball back to me. Thoughts: This week I found that I have a lot of excuses cued up and ready to go for why I couldn't do my goals each day. Looking back, there was no reason that I couldn't have gotten a 7/5 for every goal. Going in to the next week I'm going to try and make a schedule for my day. Plan out homework time, study time, and factor in my mini workouts in there as well. Hopefully by making a schedule and writing it down, I will be more likely to stick to it. We'll see how it goes!

Day 3 Update: So....... I totally thought that the challenge didn't start until next week, so I totally forgot to do any of my quests the past two days. I did go to voluntary weights Tuesday morning, so I'm going to count that as one of my leap higher workouts and say that the first two days weren't a complete loss (I'm not counting the stretching after practice as part of my flexibility workouts, I feel like that would just be cheating). Nothing like getting started on the right foot by forgetting the foot existed at all. Maybe one of my goals for the next challenge should be to work on my time management/organizational skils...... I did however get day 3 started off right by taking my beautiful puppy for a walk! In the rain I might add. I just joined the 30 day yoga challenge and intended on doing video number 1 tonight before some handstanding practice! Now, to go study for my fluids test....

Thanks! I will be sure to keep a log of my progress and let you know of any major breakthroughs/pitfalls. I don't know about handstand, but it will most definitely help with my high jumping. Is there a link to such a thing in the forums somewhere? In my current locations (In the middle of absolutely no where) I don't have access to any fancy gyms/classes :/ I called! I just left my opening mark on the assassins den, and after reading the hilarity I absolutely can not wait to join you for real! I'll be very interested in this phone book thing! It's been years since I've performed any sort of balance act and so I will welcome all of the advice from fellow comrades on arms (heh) that I can find. I'm proud of the pun. Embrace the pun. Live the pun.

Hello All! I can't wait to officially join you in 6 short weeks. But I shall drop off the spirit animal that shall be guiding me along my fledgling journey for now.

I've seen this video and every single time this part makes me cringe. KNEES SHOULD NOT BEND THIS WAY But holy moly the level of strength/flexibility.

Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? Yes! A handstand should reasonably be achievable with 6 weeks of consistent practice. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? For the most part. All 3 of my quests work on building overall strength/flexiblility. The first two are specific to handstands, while the 3rd is just over all strength. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? I could scale them down, although I don't think it will be necessary. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? Yes. They can be tracked both by the number of times completed (If I stick to my 3/5 a week schedule) and also by improvement. Increase in flexibility can be literally measured, leg strength can be physically measured, and handstand performance can be asthetically judged. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? Grades are on an A-F scale. More effort = higher letter grade = more attribute points. All A's equals a special bonus. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Most of my goals are still achievable if ill. I do not currently have a plan for if I become injured, but depending on the severity of the injury the goals would need to be completely altered, most likely to activities that would help promote healing for the injury. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? I have not, but there is enough flex room built into each weeks schedule that I can miss a few days due to holidays and still come out with an A. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? None of my goals conflict (except maybe the flexibility versus strength argument, but I don't think I'll be working at any sort of level that that is valid). Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I certainly have the time available in my schedule, it will be a challenge to actually work the goals into that time, but that is just a matter of making a commitment and using all of my time wisely. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? I am trying to build multiple habits, but they are all just subsets of a bigger one (essentially just different forms of working out, the big habit is to work out, the goals are just how that workout time is distributed).

I haven't yet, but I sure will now!

Celtois I really like your side quest 2. Last weekend I made a ginormous thing of stir-fry and that was my dinner all week long. It's a great way to make sure you're eating at least one relatively healthy meal a day, and it saves a ton of time on the day-to-day dinner preperations. I also love love love Ultimate, so kudos to you for playing it regularly. Good luck!

Ornata Thanks! We will have to cheer each other on to greatness then. It is definitely going to be an adventure. If you find a good website/podcast/something for yoga routines you should let me know (I'll do the same)! I'm kinda picky about the yoga I do and I have yet to find something that I truly enjoy, or that at least has some quality to it. And I sure hope he will! I'll like him a lot better when he stops peeing in the house and chewing up my shoes though.... Hopefully taking the time to run him around and play with him will help with those issues though.

Main Quest: To execute the perfect handstand. I have always been jealous of the assassins and their ability to balance and twirl, all my life I have thought that at 5'10" I was too tall to join their ranks. No more. Over the next 6 weeks I will conquer my fears and take the first step to becoming a true assassin. Starting with the handstand. Side quest 1: Practice Practice Practice Practice! Practice makes permanent, so at least 5 days a week I will work on my handstand for 5 minutes a day. A: 30+ days - STR: 2 DEX: 2 STA: 2 B: 25-30 days - STR: 2 DEX: 2 STA: 1 C: 20-25 days - STR: 1 DEX: 1 STA: 1 F: < 20 days - STR: 0 DEX:0 STA: 0 Side quest 2: Become more flexible!!! I will never become a true assassin with the range of motion I currently have. I will do yoga/a stretching routine at least 5 days a week A: 30+ days - DEX: 2 WIS:1 CON:1 B: 25-30 days - DEX: 2 WIS:1 CON:0 C: 20-25 days - DEX: 1 WIS:0 CON:0 F: < 20 days - DEX: 0 WIS: 0 CON:0 Side quest 3: Leap higher While not entirely necessary for my main quest, I recently joined the track team as a high jumper. In high school I was a swimmer, and it's been two years since I have competitively excersized so my ups are abysmal. So, in addition to the daily track workouts, I will complete a mini-workout of my own designed to increase my leg strength and jumping abilities (box jumps, squats, burpees, lunge jumps etc.) A: 18+ days - STR: 3 STA:1 B: 14-18 days - STR:2 STA:1 C: 10-14 days - STR:1 STA:0 F: < 10 days - STR:0 STA:0 Life quest: To become a better human for my dog. I promised my puppy that I would be the best human for him I could possibly be when I first got him, and right now I would rate myself only a C. This isn't acceptable for me or for my pooper. I will start taking advantage of his wonderful 6:30 a.m wake up call to take him for a short to medium length walk in the morning. Potentially as a warm up to my leap higher quest. This will be difficult as fall/winter is setting in and I absolutely hate the cold, but I will suffer through for Johnny. Pass - 18+ walks - WIS: 1 Motivation: Because I know I am capable of it and so I will strive to achieve it.